Media Studies: Keywords for the Present - FV7330

 Assignment no.2

• Answer one question from section A plus one question from section B.

• Each response needs to be 1500 words long not including the endnotes and

bibliography. If combined, the two responses would therefore total 3000 words.

• The example/s that you choose for answering the question from Section A cannot

be reused for Section B.

• Your two essays must be separate, with their own heading and their own

bibliography/ notes – ie do not directly join together your two essays. However,

please submit them as one document.

• The essays must be critical discussions that engage significantly with the module

literature and any other readings that you identify.

• A strong assignment will not just employ the keywords asked within the

question, but also where appropriate it will make effective use of other terms introduced on this module and elsewhere.

Section A (choose one)

1. Armchair tourism is most associated with the visual cultures of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As a concept it remains significant for an understanding of new media. Discuss with a focus on examples of your choice.

2. In what ways can the film screen be regarded as a virtual window, or as a barrier with a frame? With a focus on one or two films of your choice, consider the ways in which cinema has attempted to be more immersive.

3. What is the cinema of attractions and to what extent can it be observed within the modern phenomenon of YouTube?

4. The phantom carriage rides of the Hale’s Tours offered a physical spectacle built on voyaging, movement and immersion. The viewer transported can also be observed in contemporary media. Discuss whilst employing several examples of your choice.

5. Cinerama and IMAX are experiences that promote technological wonder and peripheral vision. To what extent do they alter spectator perception, screen space and the aesthetics of the film?

Section B (choose one)

1. Consider one or two examples of the intermedial, in which one of the forms is film. Examine, in particular, the ways in which the experience of the spectator is transformed and how film through the space of the intermedial can bring a static, solid or dead form alive.

2. Employing key words, concepts and readings introduced on this module critically analyse, contrast and understand two of the following three films: Night at the Museum (2006), The Truman Show (1998) and Ready Player One (2018). [note this question is not asking for a review or plot description]

3. The high concept production will look to coordinate and maximise consumer engagement, whilst participatory culture recognises the consumer as creator. Critically examine this statement whilst considering in detail one or two film or television franchises.

4. Media companies have long controlled the social behaviour of consumers. New technology, however, has increased consumer power. With a focus on new media and terms such as media flow, consider the extent to which this is true.